1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for generating ozone and anion and, more particularly, to an apparatus for generating ozone and anion, which is capable of respectively controlling an ozone generator and an anion generator according to a using purpose and also conveniently controlling various functions.
2. Description of the Related Art
Ozone is colorless and odorous gas having strong oxidizing power and comprising a molecule of three oxygen atoms. The ozone has a boiling temperature of 115xc2x0 C. and a dissolving temperature of 192.5xc2x0 C. The gas is 1.5 times as heavy as air. Therefore, if the ozone is leaked, the ozone is collected at a lower portion than the air.
The ozone has been stably used in various fields, e.g., a large-scaled water purification plant, in Europe and America over one hundred years ago. Further, in a natural state, the ozone forms an ozone layer in the stratosphere so as to protect human beings from intense ultraviolet rays generated from the sun.
The permissible level of ozone in working environment for a long time is 0.1 ppm. Typically, natural ozone of about 0.05 ppm is contained in the air of a beach, and about 0.03 ppm is contained in the fresh air of a forest. Generally, a man can smell the ozone of 0.01xcx9c0.03 ppm contained in the air. Therefore, the origin of a word xe2x80x9cozonexe2x80x9dalso means xe2x80x9csmellxe2x80x9d in Greek.
Further, the ozone tends to be intensely resolved during radiating of heat energy. To this end, if the ozone is in a desired useful concentration, the ozone has a characteristic of being intensely resolved even at a lower temperature of xe2x88x92120xc2x0 C. However, in a lower concentration, a resolving speed of the ozone at a room temperature is greatly reduced.
Herein, one of the most important properties of the ozone is the strong oxidizing power. The ozone can oxidize many chemical compounds that do not react with oxygen. These properties can be applied through lots of substantial applications. Particularly, the oxidizing power is used in a treating process of water such as drinking water, general-purpose water, water for a swimming pool and wastewater, etc.
The ozone does not leave a harmful residual substance at all, which is different from chlorine, when being used as an oxidizing agent. The ozone also has strong germicidal power and thus removes a bacterium and a virus. Further, the ozone has strong bleaching power. Moreover, the ozone reacts with cigarette smoke, odorous gas and various harmful organic substances so as to make them harmless.
In using the ozone as a sterilizing and germicidal agent and an oxidizing agent, one of the important advantages is in that the ozone resolves only the oxygen but does not release other undesirable substances in the water. Substantially, the resolved oxygen is a very useful substance in the drinking water or the water for a swimming pool.
Therefore, the ozone has a sterilizing and germicidal property that does not exert any undesirably influence on external form, taste and smell of the water.
The ozone can be produced in various methods. For example, the ozone is generated by an electrical or chemical producing process, or by heating gaseous oxygen or exposing infrared rays in the air.
Substantially, in the producing process of the ozone, high-tension electricity is applied to the flow of oxygen (e.g., air), which contains the ozone gas. At this time, xe2x80x9cSilent dischargexe2x80x9d generated by the high-tension electricity transforms a part of the oxygen into the ozone, and also generates ultraviolet rays at the same time.
However, in the ozone generator, as described above, there are some problems that a discharging portion is rapidly corroded, thereby reducing a life span, and it is difficult to use it at home, since its volume is too large and its way of using is very complicate.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for generating ozone and anion, in which an ozone generator has a small volume and an anion generator is additionally provided, and the ozone generator and the anion generator can be respectively controlled, and the ozone and the anion are independently or simultaneously generated according to an using purpose so as to be supplied to an indoor space or to be dissolved in various kinds of raw water, thereby sterilizing the water and removing odor of the water and thus providing clean water.
To achieve one of the aforementioned objects of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for generating ozone and anion so as to clean air and sterilize water for drinking and various vegetables/fruits, comprising an ozone generator 50 for generating ozone having a desired concentration, an ozone generator-driving portion 40 for driving the ozone generator, a second power source 45 for supplying power to the ozone generator-driving portion 40, an anion generator 35 for generating anion having a desired quantity of electric charge, an anion generator-driving portion 20 for driving the anion generator 35, a circulating fan 30 for facilely circulating the anion generated from the anion generator 35 to an outside, a first power source 25 for supplying power to the anion generator-driving portion 20, a selecting valve 60 for selectively discharging the anion generated from the anion generator 50 to the water purifier 100 or the ozone container 300, an activated carbon filter 55 for removing specific smell of the ozone introduce through the selecting valve 60 into the water purifier 100, a controlling portion 15 for controlling the entire portions including the anion generator-driving portion 20 and the ozone generator-driving portion 40, an operating portion 10 for inputting an external instruction to the controlling portion 15, and a timer 75 for controlling a reserving function of the operating portion 10.
Preferably, the ozone generator comprises a cylindrical dielectric body 520 which is formed of quartz or glass, an external electrode 540 which is formed of a spring type conductor apart from the dielectric body 520 at a distance, and an internal electrode 550 which is formed of the spring type conductor in the dielectric body 520. The anion generator comprises an acicular portion 240 having a plurality of sharp needles at a front face thereof, a fixing frame 250 for fixing the acicular portion 240, a discharging plate 230 having a plurality of discharging holes 231 corresponding to the needles of the acicular portion 240 so as to efficiently generate the anion, and a grill plate 220 for facilely discharging the anion, wherein the acicular portion 240 has a negative terminal 241, 241-1 that is connected with an anion-generating electrode (xe2x88x92), and the discharging holes 231 of the discharging plate 230 are disposed to be apart from the acicular portion 240 at a distance, and a power-supplying terminal is provided at both sides of the anion generator so that the anion generator can be assembled and disassembled without distinction of an upper and lower portion.
Preferably, the operating portion 10 comprises a vegetable/fruit button 7 which is provided to completely remove and sterilize residual agricultural chemicals, synthetic detergents and various germs on the vegetables and the fruits so as to maintain freshness when storing the vegetables and the fruits for a long time, and to sterilize and clean table services and kitchen utensils, an ozone button 6 which is provided to obtain a beauty effect but not used as water for drinking, a clean water button 1 which is provided to provide the water for drinking, which is completely harmless in an aseptic state, a clean air button 2 that generates the anion for sterilizing and purifying the air, and is performed for a predetermined time, or continuously performed, or performed in a sleep mode, a number displaying button 8 that is operated or controlled by the time and ozone increasing and decreasing buttons 4, 5 when displaying a time and when displaying the amount of ozone in the ppm unit; and a reserving button 9 that automatically generates the anion after completing a function of the vegetable/fruit button 7, the ozone button 6 and the clean water button 1, and that is interlocked with the timer 75 so as to reserve each function of the buttons.
Further, the ozone container comprises a main body 700 for receiving the ozone supplied through the ozone-supplying hose 210 from an external ozone generator, a cover 600 for removing residual ozone that is reacted with raw water in the main body 700, and a main unit 800 that efficiently supplies the ozone supplied from an outside and includes various devices for purifying the raw water so that a user can drink.
Moreover, the cover 600 comprises an ozone intake port 611 through which the residual ozone in the ozone container is sucked, an activated carbon 612 which is provided to remove the residual ozone, an outlet port 610 for discharging the residual ozone to an outside, and a locking pin 620 for sealingly coupling the cover 600 to the main body 700.
Preferably, the apparatus of claim 6, wherein the main unit 800 comprises a raw water intake 842 for sucking raw water from the main body 700, an underwater motor 841 for mixing the ozone supplied from an outside with the sucked raw water and then discharging the mixed raw water, an ozone discharging port 840 for discharging the mixed raw water, a former processing filter 831 for firstly processing the raw water processed by the ozone so as to remove contaminants, foreign substances, floating matters formed of solid substances and deposits of 5 xcexc or more, an activated carbon filter 833 for removing various chemical substances and contaminants, a purified water outlet port 810 for supplying the purified water through the activated filter 833 to the outside, a wastewater intake port 821 for receiving the wastewater, a filter 822 for filtering relatively large-sized substances such as various floating substances and deposits, and a wastewater outlet port 820 for discharging the wastewater to the outside.